This is the problem that my alma mater - Amherst College - faces with  its alumni relations.  I receive general letters in the mail, an alumni magazine, emails blasts - of which 2% is interesting to me.  In sending out these mass  messages Amherst is trying to connect with everyone who ever graduated, without establishing a strong connection with any of them.

What Amherst (and all colleges & organizations) should be doing is micro-communication.  Find a way to send out a small out of highly targeted/personalized content that people can opt in for and will actually want to receive.  I would be interested in hearing news if someone I know received some nationally recognized award, but I'd be much less interested to hear about some stranger the graduated 30 years before me.

The athletics department does this to some extent through and opt in email service for articles on specific teams, but this isn't even enough.   Amherst (and the athletic department specifically) should go even further and allow people to customize their content is as many was as possible.

Athletics should do 3 really simple things:

1) Set up an RSS feed for the sports related articles.  I for one would be much more tolerant of receiving more headlines if I could peruse them along side my other sports related feeds and without needing to surf to the site itself.

2) Leverage social networking to stay connected with young alumni.  Amherst Soccer could have a Facebook page, for instance, that is updated with scores, video and comments from the game. LinkedIn could be used to help connect current students with alumni in related fields and help develop mentoring relationships.

3) Allow and encourage students to blog on the site. Hearing first hand accounts of the experience of current students will help all alumni remember their time spent at the college.

By taking these steps Amerhst athletics could target its communication to the relevent audeince and create a strong, more lasting connection between the alumni and the school.